Gallery: Rohingya exodus - six months into the humanitarian crisis

20 February 2018

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Cox's Bazar district in southeastern Bangladesh since late August 2017 after fleeing targeted violence in Rakhine state, Myanmar. The refugees – from a minority Muslim group denied citizenship and other rights in Myanmar – are living in crowded conditions in established settlements, makeshift settlements, and new camps set up by the authorities in an effort to cope with the humanitarian crisis. MSF has intensified its operations in the region in recent months.

Rohingya Exodus - six months into the humanitarian crisis

Photo: Anna Surinyach

Two Rohingya children in Hakimpara makeshift settlement, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where more than 32,000 people are sheltering. They are two of nearly 700,000 Rohingya refugees who have made the journey from Myanmar to Bangladesh since the latest crisis erupted in late August 2017.

Photo: Anna Surinyach

Iman Hussein, a 45-year-old Rohingya refugee, was a community leader and a farmer in a town with about 1,000 houses in the Maungdaw district of Rakhine state, Myanmar. He owned some cows, land, a shop, and a two-story home, but lost everything in the violence. He fled to Bangladesh with his family, standing with him inside their tent in Jamtoli makeshift settlement, Cox's Bazar. He now tries to keep himself busy by collecting wood and other activities.

Photo: Anna Surinyach

Upon entry into Bangladesh, arrivals from Myanmar are given a medical check. Here, an MSF staff member examines a child at the Sabrang entry point.

Photo: Anna Surinyach

Carla Pla, a Spanish nurse, is the medical referent at MSF’s inpatient department in Moynarghona. The facility was under construction in December 2017 when the sudden emergence of diphtheria cases among Rohingya refugees led MSF to convert it into a full-time Diphtheria Treatment Centre.

Photo: Anna Surinyach

Kausara, a 13-year-old girl, is being cared for at MSF’s Diphtheria Treatment Centre in Moynarghona. She lives in Hakimpara makeshift settlement. “I had pain in my body, fever, throat ache… I was not able to eat anything. After taking the medicines, now I am feeling much better.”

Photo: Anna Surinyach

Ismaeli, a 10-year-old boy, lies on a bed at MSF’s Diphtheria Treatment Centre in Moynarghona as medical staff administer the antitoxin to treat diphtheria (DAT).

Photo: Anna Surinyach

MSF’s Bangladeshi medical staff at the Diphtheria Treatment Centre in Moynarghona. Dr. Wasim Firuz (left) talks about the team’s progress in fighting diphtheria: “Every day, when we do the follow-up, when a patient says that he has no pain, no fever, we feel good because we think another step forward has been made to control the disease.”

Photo: Anna Surinyach

MSF medical personnel assess the condition of patients at a primary healthcare centre in Hakimpara makeshift settlement. Every morning doctors make the rounds of their patients.

Photo: Anna Surinyach

View of Jamtoli makeshift settlement, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

Photo: Anna Surinyach

María Blanco, a Spanish nurse, leads a contact tracing team moving around Jamtoli makeshift settlement. The teams have been set up by MSF to identify all the people who have been in contact with diphtheria patients after cases of the disease emerged in late 2017. All possible contacts are provided with prophylaxis to prevent the further spread of the airborne disease.

Photo: Anna Surinyach

Patients wait for a consultation at MSF's primary health centre in Jamtoli.

Photo: Anna Surinyach

Humaira, a 25-year-old Rohingya woman, was found by MSF teams in her tent in Jamtoli makeshift settlement living in a state of shock. When violence broke out in her hometown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, in October 2017, Humaira lost her husband and was forced to flee despite her very advanced pregnancy. She walked for days through the forest with her seven-year-old son, Mohamed Faisal. Then, while aboard a boat heading towards Bangladesh, she went into labor. Ruzina, a baby girl, was born. Humaira has not been able to breastfeed her during these past months, and the child is malnourished.

Photo: Anna Surinyach

A distribution point for non-medical relief items is located next to MSF’s clinic beside the Nayapara makeshift settlement expansion area. People come here to receive clothes and other essential items such as salt, oil, rice, and sugar.

Photo: Igor Barbero

Ali Ahmed is an 80-year-old Rohingya refugee living in the Jamtoli makeshift settlement. He is from a town with about 5,000 houses in Buthidaung district, Rakhine state, Myanmar, and arrived in Bangladesh in the first week of September 2017. This is the third time in the last four decades that he has been a refugee in Bangladesh. Three different camps, more than six years in total, two return trips to Myanmar. His now-deceased wife gave birth to two sons the first time they were displaced to Bangladesh; two other sons died in the most recent wave of violence.